Georges St-Pierre (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

Due to Georges St-Pierre’s long run on of decision wins the star took heat for not finishing fights, so, according to his jiu-jitsu coach, the Canadian focused on his finishing skills leading up to his comeback at UFC 217.

St-Pierre returned to the Octagon for the first time since 2013 last month, and choked Michael Bisping out to win the UFC’s middleweight title. The win marked the first time in seven bouts for St-Pierre that he had stopped an opponent. Recently, renowned jiu-jitsu practitioner John Danaher appeared on “The MMA Hour”. During the interview, Danaher said that St-Pierre and his coaches decided to focus on his finishing abilities, as he prepared for Bisping (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“I said why don’t we focus on a training regiment that strongly emphasizes submissions and TKOs/KOs and punching power that you need to finish a fight. You go up a weight division and you focus on the old, dynamic in-and-out and lateral movement of Georges St-Pierre to create a faster paced fight that people find more interesting…”

“…Georges came in and worked with the squad and we strongly emphasized submission holds. Normally when I train with Georges it’s really what we call ‘grapple boxing’, which is a mixture of striking and boxing on the ground. It’s mostly positional work.”

“Instead we changed everything to submission holds, favoring strangulations from the back and leg locks. Georges made remarkable progress.”

Danaher also reported that GSP worked his boxing coach, Freddie Roach as well, on sitting down on his punches and hitting hard. The former welterweight champ dropped Bisping in round three of their November 4th bout with a left hook, and proceeded to choke the British star out moments later.